Former Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame has expressed concern over what he describes as troubling developments in the conduct of criminal prosecutions and law enforcement processes in Ghana.
His comments come in the wake of the rearrest of the former Chief Executive Officer of the National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO), Abdul-Wahab Hanan and his wife, a development that has generated intense public debate and renewed discussions about due process.
Speaking on Joy News, Godfred Dame criticised the manner in which some prosecutions are handled, arguing that individuals are sometimes subjected to public humiliation and reputational damage before the state is able to establish sufficient evidence against them.
According to him, the situation involving Abdul-Wahab Hanan and the other accused persons raises serious concerns about fairness and the protection of individual rights within the justice system.
“After bastardising them in the eyes of the public, holding them to ransom, tearing their reputation to shreds and saying that they have committed stealing and all that, and finding that indeed there is no evidence at all to support the charges and that the prosecution would not be as smooth as he [the Attorney General] wanted, decided to withdraw [the case] and then resort to extrajudicial harassment. It cannot be possible.
“I think good men in the country will have to wake up. If indeed we have good men who are actually in charge of the processes of law enforcement, we will not be doing that.
“I recognise the right of all persons. In this case, we find the Attorney General himself and the Deputy Attorney General violating people’s rights.”
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